Illegal bear hunt, identity theft net Florida man $66,450 in fines

A Florida man who stole a friend's identity to illegally kill a brown bear in Alaska — then complained about the hunt because he wanted a bigger bear — has been sentenced to pay more than $66,000 in penalties.

People get in trouble for flouting hunting and fishing laws in Alaska all the time. But this case came with at least one unusual twist.

Jack Vincent Dickerson, 35, illegally killed a female brown bear on Oct. 1, 2009, in Game Management Unit 9 on the Alaska Peninsula, prosecutors say. The skull was delivered to his Spring Hill home. He paid a taxidermist to make the hide into a rug.

But after the hunt, still using the false identity, Dickerson complained to Cabela's Outdoor Adventures about the quality of the hunt.

He'd wanted a 10-foot trophy male instead, he said. In order to get his money back, Dickerson then told his credit card company that the charges for the hunt had been made by someone else.

Dickerson pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday to pay $50,000 for one felony count of violating the Lacey Act and felony identity theft. He must also pay $15,150 in restitution to Cabela's Inc. and $1,300 in restitution to the state of Alaska, the U.S. Attorney's office says.